Putting The Quality In Audit Reports

An audit report is the end product of weeks of reviews, analysis and interviews, and its quality decides whether management accepts your findings and acts on your recommendations. This 90-minute audit report writing training shows how to make that report count.

You'll review the audit standards on report quality and work through the seven elements of a quality report: accurate, objective, clear, concise, constructive, complete and timely. Exercises help you apply each one.

The same principles work for executive summaries, fraud investigation reports, consulting reports, memos and general correspondence.

• Explain the audit standards that govern report quality
• Apply each of the seven report quality elements
• Structure a report around what was done, what was found and what management should do
• Avoid giving management too little or too much information
• Use the same principles in other business writing

• Audit standards related to audit report quality
• The seven report quality elements: accurate, objective, clear, concise, constructive, complete and timely
• What management needs: what was done, what was found and what to do
• Applying the elements to executive summaries, fraud investigations, consulting reports, memos and correspondence
• Report quality exercises

A poorly written report can bury strong recommendations. Management may misread the findings, get too little information to decide well, or waste time sorting through too much. A good report tells them what was done, what was found and what they should do.

This session suits audit executives, directors, managers, supervisors and staff, plus government and compliance auditors, internal control specialists, accountants and analysts.

• Chief Audit Executives
• Audit Directors
• Audit Supervisors
• Audit Managers
• Staff Auditors
• Government Auditors
• Compliance Auditors
• Internal Control Specialists
• Public Accountants
• Accounting Analysts
• Business Analysts
• Quality Control Specialists

Jonnie Keith has been in auditing for over 50 years. He retired in 2012 as the Assistant General Manager (AGM) of Internal Audit with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Atlanta, Ga. He served in that capacity for over 10 years and was responsible for administering the overall audit activities. In this position, he was also responsible for the review and approval of all internal audit correspondence including audit reports, executive summaries, internal and external correspondence, etc.

Prior to that, he worked at MARTA as the Operational Audit Manager and Senior Contract Compliance Auditor. He also worked at Norfolk Southern Railway (formerly Southern Railway) as a senior operational auditor and started his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as a bank examiner.

Jonnie Keith received a BA degree in Economics from Clark Atlanta University (formerly Clark College). His certifications include:

• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
• Certified Government Auditing Professional (CGAP)
• Certified Internal Control Auditor (CICA)

He has been a volunteer seminar instructor for the National Office of the Institute of Internal Auditors for several years.